Who starts which

If you are in the districts with land, a craft, or a kitchen

Clusters 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 14, and the Sil section. The homestay, the workshop, the retreat, the fifteen things from the nut, the estate's own tea, the lagoon's own crab. The mechanism you are using is one of two: the visitor is already coming, and you are giving them a reason to stay a second week; or you own the next step yourself.

Your clusters

An old brass hotel room key on a leather tag resting on a folded linen map, beside a small cup of tea, on dark teak

1

Stay longer (the $2.4 billion gap)

If Sri Lanka earned what the Maldives earns per visitor, the visitors it already has would bring in $2.4 billion a year...

20 ideas, 1 to 20
A craftsman's hands shaping a clay pot on a wheel, lit by one lamp, clay dust in the light

2

Sell the making, not the object

The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.

25 ideas, 21 to 45
Brass bowls of green herbs, a glass of golden oil and a bundle of dried leaves on dark stone, a wisp of steam in the light

5

Wellness, which we are famous for and barely sell

Ayurveda is a system of medicine the world already recognises and seeks out. The demand is there; what Sri Lanka needs...

20 ideas, 101 to 120
A black clay cooking pot with a rich curry, surrounded by small brass dishes of whole spices on dark slate, one soft light

6

Food and drink as export, not just hospitality

Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and...

30 ideas, 121 to 150
A coconut cut open, a glass bottle of clear coconut oil with a gold cap, a coil of coir rope and a coconut-shell cup on black

8

The coconut, which deserves its own list

The whole-nut principle. Sri Lanka's coconut exports are growing, which makes this the one chain already moving. Almost...

15 ideas, 176 to 190
A single lit clay oil lamp and one white lotus flower on dark stone, the flame the only light

9

The offering nobody else can make

What cannot be copied. Every competitor can build a beach hotel. No competitor can offer a Buddhist tradition more than...

10 ideas, 191 to 200
A white porcelain cup of golden tea on a saucer, loose black tea leaves and a small woven plucking basket on dark teak

10

Tea, beyond the auction

The Colombo auction sells tea by the lot to a buyer who blends it under his own name. Every step after the auction is...

20 ideas, 201 to 220
A small bundle of TRUE CEYLON CINNAMON quills tied with twine: long, thin (about a finger wide), PALE golden tan, each quill made of many paper-thin layers rolled inside each other like a fine cigar, with soft crumbly ends; NOT thick dark single-layer cassia sticks. Beside it a few loose broken quill pieces and one fresh green cinnamon leaf, on dark wood

11

Cinnamon and the spice garden

The imitation out-earns the original. Vietnam earns more from cassia than Sri Lanka does from true cinnamon, because...

15 ideas, 221 to 235
The carved wooden prow of a traditional fishing boat with a hanging lantern, on dark calm water at dusk

13

The sea

An ocean eight times the size of the land, and a fishing fleet that sells its catch on the beach. The Maldives built a...

20 ideas, 251 to 270
A wooden crate of ripe mangoes and a sack of rice beside an antique brass balance scale on dark wood

14

Farm to shelf

The smallholder sells raw to a collector at the gate and the collector sells to a packer who puts his own name on it....

25 ideas, 271 to 295

200 ideas